The Violet and the Little Girl
by Yakumo-san
Summary: In a time of strife where human-youkai interactions appeared to be at their worst, Yakumo Yukari stumbled upon a certain "something", that "something" being a lost child. Little did the Youkai of Boundaries know of what the future then held in store for her, of how this child would change everything.
1. Prologue

The day that I found her, it was a little bit over ten years ago. I remember it as if it was yesterday, and that is quite something, you know?

I am a _youkai_, a creature that often gets lost in the sea of eternity through which it is afloat. A lot of things are inevitably forgotten by me as the sands of time flow; in this light, for me to remember a meeting down to its smallest details... that is quite the miracle.

It rained heavily at that time. Holding my trusty umbrella, I managed to remain relatively dry as I walked on through a small beaten path, weaving in between trees and shrubbery. Supposedly, I was taking a stroll in the forest paralleling the _Great Hakurei Barrier_.

"Supposedly" taking a stroll indeed, since as far as I know, a stroll is to be enjoyed under a pristine weather - not under a diluvial-like precipitation.

It seemed that nature was being capricious once again. There should have been a bright sun shining above _Gensokyo _according to my predictions, but the weather clearly had decided to do otherwise - it had preferred to grant us a torrential downpour, rather than a radiant sky, and that was quite a bother.

I wondered wherever or not I should take one of these "_Meteorological Stations_" from the outside world and implement them in _Gensokyo_. The feasibility of such a project was not excessively low, but it did have a few implied problems at its core – such a thing would weaken the hold of gods and superstitions on the _Human Village_, and that was something the _Youkai Council_ could not allow since mystery was something we lived on. It was not as if I cared though, I was different from most of them... I was the _Youkai of Boundaries_, their problems were of little concern to me.

These thoughts ran on in my head like little critters as I kept going on. Pondering about the different ways through which I could make _Gensokyo_a better place was always nice to relieve me of my greatest enemy - boredom.

This moment of reflection came to a halt though, when the sound of strange, inaudible utterances came to my ears.

I stopped to listen. I was able to make out the where the source of these noises was through the pelting weather. It was coming from the back of a nearby tree.

Curious, I set out to investigate this strange phenomenon. What I found was simultaneously adorable and... out of all things... miserable. It was an absurd paradox, at any rate.

There was a small trembling ball curled up against the trunk of an azalea. It was a human child, a girl, to be precise. As if she did not already look pitiful enough in that state, her clothes were in rags. What probably had been an exotic _kimono _beforehand had become a decrepit torn and tattered cloth. Holes in the textile exposed her white and fragile skin, some of the latter's surface having already been violated with bruises and injuries.

I looked at the poor thing, at the small figure drenched from head to toe in water, and I realized that I had found a little, totally helpless butterfly.

_And I felt the near-uncontrollable urge to eat it._

To us _youkai_, despairing and agonizing children always were one of the most delectable meals we could enjoy. Small and tender, consuming such delicacies always netted a marvelous experience, and the fear exhibited by these terrorized "meals" when they stood at death's doorstep added, to say the least, a wonderful flavor to it all.

But no matter how delicious the prospect of gulping her down into my stomach seemed... I restrained myself - I had my own standards. I held the title of "_Sage of Gensokyo_"; I would not allow myself to stoop down to such a level. _Greater Youkai_ had their pride after all.

I cast aside this uncivilized instinct and approached the girl, mustering the warmest smile I could. She did not notice notice my presence, even as I walked up to her very front. She just kept her eyes closed and continuously cried on and on, her strangled voice continuously calling for a mother and father that were nowhere to be seen.

"A lost child, without doubt," I thought to myself.

Was she a denizen of the Human Village, or had she accidentally been spirited away to _Gensokyo_ from the _Outside World_? I could not ascertain with certainty which of these statements was correct. While she wore traditional clothing, it was possible that it was traditional clothing from the _Outside World_ itself. Japan held on to its traditions very dearly after all; outsiders wearing _kimono _for special occasions were not a sight that would be out of the ordinary.

"Hello darling, are you alright?" I asked the girl, sheltering her under the cover of my umbrella. It was rather large, and she was quite the minuscule child - there was no particular difficulty in fitting the both of us under it.

She remained silent for a moment. I thought that she had not heard me, so I was about to move my hand to tap her shoulder. However, at that very moment, her cries weakened, and she raised her head.

Raising one's head is such a small gesture that anyone could do. It was the contraction and expansion of a few muscles, all the simple outcome of a command given by the brain. Yet that movement I saw there felt so... I had no words to describe what it instilled within my heart, and to be fair I still do not have any today. All that I could relate it to, was to the rising of the sun at dawn, as rays of light put an end to the darkness of night.

It was more than beautiful.

There was hope in the girl's eyes, yes, in these flooded, anguished and agonizing ruby eyes, I could see a light of hope.

She scrutinized me, her facial expression jolting from pained to joyful, from scared to relieved - and it all happened in a fraction of a second.

To me though, that instant lasted as if it was an eternity.

A wonderful eternity.

"Mother?" she said.

These two syllables that she then uttered etched an unforgettable, irremovable print onto my soul.

It was the very first time in my millennial lifespan that someone had called me so. Even my _shikigami _had never seen me as a motherly soul whenever I took care of her, but rather, she had always referred to me as "Master".

I could not bring myself to do anything else other than stare back at her in disbelief, wondering if either her vision had been clouded by all of the tears inundating her eyes, or if she had simply had lost her mind.

"You're Mother, aren't you?" she asked again, looking at me with these eyes of her, filled with an ever-endearing light.

I was left in continued speechlessness, I who was a being that had lived for over a thousand years, a being that had the opportunity to learn so much about the world, to roam across it, and above all, to wise up to life's harsh experiences through such a long lifespan.

I was all this, and yet, I was left speechless against a human that had breathed fresh air for a lapse of time that did not even exceed a mere decennium.

As I look back to that moment, who was really the miserable one? Was it that child, or was it me? Furthermore... who actually found who? Did I find her, or was I the one that was found? Did I save her, or was I the one who was saved?

The question bothers me to this day.

At any rate, this is how an era ended, and a new one began.


	2. Chapter 1

The girl weighed nothing. It was to such an extent that if I had closed my eyes, it would have been hard for me to believe that a child had snuggled into my hold. Her weight was more akin to the one of a feather, not of a human girl's.

The rain was quickly dying down in intensity, having already regressed into a weak drizzle. It was a sudden change, as sudden as earlier when the azure sky became covered with grey clouds. Mother Nature appeared to be at her greatest peak of whimsicality... but was she really?

_Perhaps she was just crying for this lost child._

To even hypothesize such a thing was the epitome of absurdity to me, I who had ascertained one thing throughout the long life I had lived: that while gods and nature could be passionate about certain matters, compassion in contrast to passion, was a concept that remained abstract to them.

Did I condemn such a thing though? I think not, for I had no reason to. Also, it would have anyways been quite the hypocritical show - I had a long time ago joined them in likeliness, when I turned into a _youkai_ eons before.

It was not a total likeliness though. In stark contrast to these people, I had chosen not to discard my feelings. I kept them, and I had them remain as an integral part of my soul, a memento to the past humanity of mine that that was gone.

But yes, that was all that they were - a memento. They were not to be touched anymore, they were to remain as ornaments, mere decorations that had only one purpose, and that purpose, it was simply to add a fake feeling of embellishment to my soul.

However as I ran my fingers though the damp, shoulder-length hair of this little figure which held on to me, I could not stop myself from wondering if a remaining phantom of them had lingered behind.

Why was it so euphoric for me to hold that child? When I stroked the long and black strands of her hair while her warm and fugitive breath gently blew against my neck's side and heated... all of this graced me with a pleasance that I had not felt in a very, very long time.

I did not recall that holding a child could bring about such feelings of elation.

Maybe was it because that little girl was a special case. Something about her made the moment different from the one I had spent with any other child before in my arms.

Yes, I realized that this girl... the difference with her was that she wasn't scared of me. I couldn't see a single ounce of suspicion or mistrust on her face - she had abandoned herself to me, that's why it was so different.

I recalled the harsh times that I had gone through before, when I tried to blend in with human society, when kids or adults, no matter who it was, always cowered away from my presence. It was of no importance if it was but a glimpse of me that they caught, or heard a mere whisper of my presence - they all just ran away from me.

Such were the consequences of having so much power. They saw the fluctuating boundary that I was, they saw the distorted reality that surrounded my paradoxical being.

Yes, I was a distortion incarnate, and that very point was what scared everyone.

Anyone.

Everyone.

Except this girl. Except the one that had called me "mother". Except the one that had looked at me with eyes shining a light unseen in my agelong life.

_That light, that light that no words could describe._

It had stopped raining. All was silent. No bird was singing, no wind was blowing, no beast was howling - all that could be heard was water rhythmically splashing as my shoes crashed into puddles, testaments of the downpour that had come to pass.

Even for my own tastes, everything was too calm.

I glanced at the girl. Ever since I had cradled her, she had not spoken a single word to me other than "yes" and "no", two words that she gave me respectively when I asked her if she felt comfortable in my hold, then if wherever she was injured somewhere.

But then, had these questions been worthy of engaging us in a conversation? She was in the end, but a child.

Not an ordinary child though. That is why I considered stepping up the conversation.

"Darling... I am sorry to tell you this, but I am not your mother."

"I knew that when I saw you..."

Quite the perplexing answer from her. I had to pause for a while, mentally searching for an explanation as to why she had asked earlier if I was her mother.

Had she really lost her mind?

"Why did you ask me then?"

"Mom always told me that if you wished for something important very hard, God would answer your prayer..."

A snicker snuck out of my mouth, a child mentioning God was a spectacle that always amused me.

I would have answered that there was no God, that he was at best, the creation of the desperate and disillusioned part of mankind, but I refrained from expressing my own opinion - it was preferable to me subtle with younglings like her.

"God can be very busy at times."

"That's why he sent you, didn't he?"

Her words set off a small fire, a small tickle in the depths of my soul. That tickle began to make me chuckle. The chuckle became a chortle, just like how a fire slowly grows, and the chortle then turned into a full-blown laugh, until I eventually broke out in unrestrained laughter.

There simply was something absurdly ludicrous in being called an envoy of "_that person_", whose existence I despised and in fact, absolutely denied.

I laughed and laughed, my voice echoing through the silent forest. Birds took flight, a small wind wailed in fright, and the trees shuddered in panic. Nature itself was afraid.

But this girl, on the other hand, remained fearless like she had before - simply giving me a blank look.

That human child was indeed very special. Not only had she made me live emotions which I had not seen the light of in a very, very long time, but she had also given me one of the most delirious laughs I had in centuries, a laugh so great that it took for the usually calm and composed me about ten seconds to regain my composure.

"What's funny?" the girl asked, slightly tilting her head sideways, her lips curved down a bit. She probably thought that I was mocking her.

"Nothing child... nothing," I said, looking away to conceal my cynical smile.

I shot a small glance at the little girl from the side. She appeared to be offended, judging from the pouting face that she was giving me.

Perhaps it was time to change the subject.

"Now, now... could you tell me your name? Mine is Yukari."

"Auntie Yukari?"

I nearly choked. I probably would have, had I not had some miraculous foresight, a foresight about these silly words that slipped out of her innocent mouth.

"Spare me the title, please, but anyway, what is your name?" I asked, waiting for these few syllables by which I could identify her.

A "normal" person usually knows their name by heart. A name is in the end, the label through which people are identified, the proof that one actually is, actually exists and is an individual.

However, the girl did all but immediately answer me. Instead, she looked around, appearing confused, totally lost. Her crimson eyeballs slid quickly from left to right, searching for _something _amidst the trees that surrounded us. Perhaps did she expect to find her name there.

"What is the matter?" I asked.

"I-I don't remember."

"... you do not remember your name."

She gave me a stare that I could only describe as hollow and distressed. Her eyes were fixated unto mine once again, but the light of hope I had seen earlier had now departed, having been replaced by something else - fear, fear not of Yakumo Yukari, but of herself.

"... I don't think so... I..."

The girl sounded uncertain. Well, she not only sounded, she also looked uncertain... or I could just say that every part of her being was infused with uncertainty.

_And fear._

Not only had I come across a lost butterfly... I had come across a butterfly who did not even know what or who she was.

What I was going to do with her? Was I going to shelter this poor soul? The idea, while appearing quite sensible, was not a good solution in the end. By merely living in my proximity, this child stood at risk of having her human nature being violated.

We already had more than enough _youkai_ in _Gensokyo._

I knew though someone that, in contrast to my situation, could afford taking this child under her roof.

"I see... come with me, I shall take you to a friend of mine."

To call that person a "friend" was all but a fairly accurate description of our relationship. The latter resembled more one shared by an employer and their employee, but at any rate, she was the human that I trusted the most.

Clearly not the most trusted individual though. That woman had her own share of eccentricities that made her slightly too unpredictable for my own liking.

I began walking towards the _Hakurei Shrine_, which was but a few minutes away by foot. I could have flown, I could have opened a gap and simply appeared there as I wished, but I feared that doing so could traumatize the child - she was after all, from the outside world.

How had I noticed that, you would be curious to know, wouldn't you?

While my stare wandered across her nape, the one thing that I could see best since she had was holding on to me so tightly, I noticed a label sticking out of the top back of her _kimono_. It was the proof that this piece of clothing had been sewn by machines of the _Outside World_. Not only that, as I touched the fabric itself, the latter felt as if it had been woven together by the work of machines, not by the skillful and delicate hands of an artisan.

There were no machines in _Gensokyo_, except for the _Kappa_'s. Due to how tense the matters between _youkai_ and _humans _were, and also, because of how stupid the idea of sewing _kappas_ was in reality, it was all but likely that this _kimono_ was something her parents had purchased from the _river youkai._

Speaking of the girl's parents, I had yet to ask her what had happened to them. I already had my fair share of suspicions, but these questions could wait for later, after I had gotten some proper dry clothing on this child, so that she would not fall sick, or worse, die of cold.

All that I had to do at that point was to bring her to the shrine... and give her all of the motherly affection she needed along the way.

Yes... the euphoria of gently caressing the silky hair of hers - this stroll to the shrine surely seemed as if it was going to be quite the pleasant one.

The _Hakurei Shrine_ known by the present _Gensokyo_ is a domain of peace and comfort. You can be an exile, a reject, but no matter who you are or what you are, the temple and its shrine maiden will accept you and provide asylum. That place is an open sanctuary, welcoming both _youkai_ and _humans _alike.

In this light, never could one imagine that, back then when I brought this little child to the shrine, the atmosphere surrounding the place could have pulverized even the most powerful of Gensokyo's youkai. It was all the courtesy of the complex _ofuda _talismans that had been laid in a network, forming a protective field around the shrine.

The crowning of this glorious irony was however the fact that I was the one responsible for this barrier's creation. Yes, I was its creator, the creator of something that was meant to destroy _youkai _what could be called "my kin".

Would it destroy me though? No. I was spared from disintegrating into thousands of particles when I stepped into the shrine's grounds - I was not a fool who would make a tool unable to recognize their owner.

I glanced around with the child still in hand. Quiet as always, she passively followed my stare, looking wherever I looked. The place was empty, the lifeless stone path leading up to the stone shrine deserted as ever. Not like it was an unusual sight though.

The _Hakurei Miko_ was the one that maintained the so called "balance" between _youkai_ and _humans_. Due to this job of hers, she was hated by both sides, just because she did what she was supposed to do - she remained neutral.

Praised by none and loathed by all, she never had visitors, except from some select individuals that stood out of the rest, enthusiasts of that lost cause called the _Youkai-Human cohabitation_... or also, people that just found the place interesting, like me.

My steps echoing on the cobblestone were the only hearable sounds. Peaceful soundlessness, or an unsettling silence, I was rather uncertain what to make of this air that surrounded me.

_Also, it was excessively humid, thanks to this wonderful combination of water and heat._

"Is this your friend's house?" the girl asked as I walked up to the shrine.

"Indeed, this is where she resides," I answered.

"Doesn't look like she's here."

No, it did not. I did not even need to approach the shrine any further to ascertain wherever its occupier was there or not - I already knew that whenever the shrine maiden was home, she would always let her _shoji_ open. It wasn't at that time.

The door was closed.

"If the devil isn't early today... and what is that you're holding? A kid?" a voice said from behind.

A rebellious, impudent voice that belonged to a young woman. There was no need for me to turn back to see who that was. I could already picture her, standing there in a red _hakama_ wrapped over her white _kimono_.

I could even see that insolent smile of hers that she always gave me.

"Running your tongue about as always, Hakurei."


	3. Chapter 2

A droplet of water hung above my head, dangling from the veranda's edge. I dreamily awaited its descent, adjusting my teacup to ensure that the droplet's fall would lead it unto the receptacle.

Needless to say, it was quite the infantile game.

An indistinct period passed as I sat there, until finally, the small bulb of water came off the wood and plummeted into the cup's contents.

As both liquid masses met, nature's physics went to work - the collision caused a small splash, after which waves rippled outwards from the point of impact while forming seamless concentric circles.

For an insignificant droplet to cause such disturbance, especially when one considered that it was in size but a hundredth of the teacup's content's surface's... perhaps was it because I had _just _experienced something of a similar vein, but I found it rather impressive.

Speaking of the other droplet made me wonder what had happened to it. Quite some time had gone by since Hakurei had taken the child into her living quarters, enough so that I was becoming curious about what was happening in there.

Had the shrine maiden managed to get friendly with the girl, or had there been some dire injury that I had not noticed earlier?

I peeked over my shoulder to have a look behind me.

"What are you looking at?" asked a voice.

"Noth-"

I needed a moment to realize that an intruder had furtively taken a seat besides me. One of the main reasons behind this was that for someone to perform such a thing, especially in a lapse of time as short as the one they had there... that was enough to have me taken aback. No one was supposed to surprise me like that, or at least, not a lot of people were theoretically able to do so.

The voice had a noticeably ethereal, ghostly feel to it, and this allowed me to narrow down the list of possible offenders to two individuals. One of them should have been in the _Netherworld _as she had affairs to tend to over there, meaning that the one who had surreptitiously approached me could only be -

"So you have broken out again from that _hokora_? And I thought that Hakurei was getting better at seals..."

The woman, or should I say, _the ghost _looked at me with a smug smile, a very characteristic one that usually accompanied that prideful face of hers wherever she went. Her patronizing tone was because of this, all the harder to listen to.

"Why are you blaming Hakurei when it's you that sealed me inside there? You could've at least put some effort in that work of yours – breaking the seal was child's play."

"That was homework for Hakurei, and obviously, she did not do it."

The ghost snickered, as if she was ridiculing me.

"How is she supposed to know if you only drop by once a year? Do you even know about what happened while you were away, tending to your random pleasures?"

Receiving a lecture from a vengeful spirit was not exactly something that I appreciated; on the contrary, such a thing was enough to render me quite, and I mean it... _quite _furious.

The ghost could not do anything, not even realize what was happening to her, as I lifted my boundary-manipulating fan at her throat. The usually decorative tool was then brimming with power – a simple impetus was all that was required to severe the thin boundary between her neck and head.

"Do you want me to show you one of these random pleasures, Mima?"

The ghost leaned away from my fan. She did not yield to fear to be precise, but the prospect of losing her head obviously didn't sound most appealing to her.

"I think that I'll pass," said Mima, her stare filled with an uncomfortable mixture of awkwardness and wariness.

"Good."

I removed my fan from her neck and stowed it away in a gap of mine, returning to what I had been doing just before this little incident - holding the cup of tea in my hands and slowly drinking its contents.

I had shut my eyes on what had just happened. I could, perhaps, be menacing at times, maybe even slipping on insanity's border with my willingness to kill on a whim, but there was one big principle to which I adhered: people had my permission to die only after the cost of their upkeep went past their actual value.

This ghost here wasn't someone who I would have called a friend. Even, calling her an acquaintance might not have come to my mind, if I ever had to refer to her... but she still had a myriad of uses for me, and that alone was enough of a reason why I wanted to keep her. Well, that, and there were a few more things that I wanted to know about her, like her background.

After all, gathering information on people's pasts had always been a hobby of mine.

"You're getting grumpier every time I see you, Lady Yakumo."

"Are you reconsidering my previous offer?"

"Nah, just a little bit of advice from a ghost. I can't kill Hakurei if _Gensokyo _ends up burning up with her, can I?"

"You have been threatening to kill her ever since I met you, and yet, within the thousand of opportunities you had to either stab her in the back or poison her food, you have done nothing, absolutely nothing. Do you expect me to still believe in these void claims of yours?"

People tended to forget that, even while I was physically absent from it, I possessed many ways to observe the ludicrous events that transpired in _Gensokyo _- Mima's fooling around with Hakurei was no exception.

A smirk flashed on the ghost's visage as she heard my response.

"So you've really been keeping an eye on her... I'm surprised."

I remained silent, giving no answer. Was there any answer to give, at any rate? She didn't even ask me a question, and truth to be told, I was inching towards the side of "speech is silver, silence is gold."

That silence did not last long though. It was broken, not by me, still slowly sipping away at my tea, nor by the ghost, who was absent-mindedly gazing at the shrine grounds. The rupturing sound came from a door, slid open inside the shrine. Following it not too long afterward, the light and rhythmical sound of two people's footsteps on the wooden parquet came to be heard.

"Well, I'll be taking my leave. She's quite the interesting one, you know, that kid you've found?" the ghost playfully said before disappearing into a thin vapor.

I had actually forgotten to ask her about one thing – "_how did you get in here without being vaporized by the barrier?"_

All things taken into account though, she _was _Mima. I had to expect the unexpected from the vengeful spirit that went by that name.

As the last few misty particles that she left behind floated away, Hakurei arrived at the doorstep, a cup of tea in her hands.

"Eh, you haven't gone in yet?" she asked, sounding rather surprised. "Isn't that rare?"

"I was taking my time to enjoy the shrine's scenic courtyard. It has after all been a year since I last came here, has it not? "

Hakurei gave me a stare filled with perplexity. I really had to wonder what was strange about me willing to stay outside.

"Is something of the matter?" I asked the shrine maiden as she stood there, continuously giving me the same perplexed stare.

She shook her head.

"Bah, I guess that having tea outside would be a refreshing change from that bland dining room," she said, turning her head to her back, then winking to someone who I presumed, was the child.

Hakurei had apparently returned to her more joyful persona... in fact, she appeared a little bit too happy, even by the usual standards.

"There, there kiddie, don't be shy, show to grandma how you look now!" the shrine maiden said with much enthusiasm.

"_Grandma?!"_

Ah yes, there was something that I both liked and hated about the shrine maiden - her ludic spirit. She knew very well that calling me grandma was akin to insulting me, but she did it repeatedly just for the sake of seeing me flustered.

Such insolence required some disciplining...

...however, I did not wish for any display of violence in the presence of a young soul like the one standing behind this bratty woman. Besides, it would have been most unrefined of my part if I succumbed to a fit of anger.

"_...you're getting grumpier..._" a voice echoed in my head, as if haunting me.

I could only laugh internally in derisiveness, commenting on how the so-called _ghost _was actually doing her job.

But maybe was I really getting a slightly overworked for such trifles.

I supposed that I could let things like this slip for once... perhaps some leniency from her master was deserved - she had done her share of hard work during this last year.

Just like her predecessor, I supposed.

I remained silent and watched on as Hakurei was doing the equivalent of a circus before me. From what I could see, the shrine maiden was trying to get the child in front of her, probably in an attempt to show me how she had dressed the child up.

"Aww, come on, don't be shy!" the shrine maiden said while being seemingly tired from her small efforts, pouting in dejection.

A good question that I asked myself was: "_who was the real kid here?_"

With Hakurei's floaty _kimono _and flailing about, I couldn't catch a glimpse of the child, but judging from how the shrine maiden was acting, the little girl must had been going through some awful times.

"Hah... hey, you could at least say no if you don't want to." Hakurei huffed, somehow exhausted from the mere effort of trying to move a child not even half her age.

"No," replied the little girl. That answer was punctuated with the sound of glass shattering inside my head, but then, I was quite ahead my time in terms of sound effects.

Hakurei's shoulders and head slumped down, as if she had lost all life - much to my delight at any rate, since I rather enjoyed the sight of upbeat people like her getting all depressed. It was just too bad that I couldn't see her visage since she was facing me backwards at the time.

Well, at least I could satisfy myself with imagining her saddened expression.

"*Sniff*... why is life so harsh?" the shrine maiden lamented as tears began trickling down her cheeks.

Such a big crybaby.

"H-hey, don't cry big sis..."

_Big sis_? That she had referred to me as mother was already quite the shock, but now that she was calling Hakurei her elder sibling, I didn't even know what to make of such a behavior.

It did possess a light, adorable charm that I certainly couldn't dismiss though, the behavior that is...

… nor could Hakurei, who, being temperamental as ever, went from tears to ecstasy in an instant.

"Yaaaayyy!" the shrine maiden squealed, grabbing the child and pushing her in front of me.

Quite the bad manners, but then, Hakurei not being considerate of the child's mental state didn't touch me like a surprise, rather, I had perhaps expected it from the beginning. Hakurei herself never had a proper mother after all.

Thinking about this could only turn my mood gloomier though, so I elected to actually play along with Hakurei and look at the child. What else could I do, at any rate?

Time went blank.

There are times when people wonder how they could have missed something that should have been so easily observable when they searched. A shiny golden coin that was right on the table, yet that they did not see; a silver necklace hanging on a branch under the bright sunlight, yet which they had mistaken for the reflection of dew.

That was exactly how I felt like, when the scales of obliviousness blinding my eyes came off.

A simple dress, a simple hairstyle, that was all that she needed to look gorgeous.

If she had already charmed me while soaked by the rain and wearing rags for clothes... how could I not have anticipated the beauty she would radiate when clothed like a little angel?

_Girls are being charmed._

"She recalls nothing about her name," I told Hakurei.

The shrine maiden jolted up from her seating position, nearly spilling her tea in the process.

"W-what..." she babbled, throwing a distressed stare at the child, "...you can't remember it?"

The child who had somehow nested herself comfortably on my lap shook her head. How she had even gotten there, I wasn't really sure, or maybe that I simply didn't want to know.

At any rate, was this really a way for a child to act, when she had just been separated from her mother and father, or worse, had just seen them die?

She seemed all the more strange as time passed. All the signs of trauma she had shown previously while alone in the rain had disappeared. She was acting like a normal child, as if nothing had ever happened.

Her feet nonchalantly swung back and forth while she hummed a certain tune. The said tune was unfamiliar, but it had a distinctively melancholic feel to it.

_Was it that she simply didn't want to remember?_

The thought of it came to me. However, what could I do about it, anyway?

"Didn't you ask her anything while you were changing her and tending to her wounds?" I asked Hakurei.

It was the shrine maiden's turn to shake her head, just like the child had done beforehand. Hakurei visibly had not had much success in her ways to open up the child's heart.

However, even though she had failed, she appeared to be content about something - that much could be seen on the proud expression she had.

"She's the little shy one. But don't worry, give me some more time, and my _nee-chan_ here will understand how much _onee-san _Hakurei loves her!"

… it was hard for me to look at the woman with a straight face. To call her "a fool lost in her dreams" would have been harsh, but nonetheless very appropriate.

"Aren't we getting a little bit ahead of ourselves here?"

"Hey... don't be so mean," the shrine maiden pouted.

Indeed, there was more than one child here amongst us.

"Hey, grandma?" the girl suddenly called me, a touch of fondness in her voice.

I did my best not to show any signs of anger. While I had persuaded myself earlier to endure this kind of labeling from Hakurei, being referred to as such by the child had an impact that was all but comforting to me.

I wasn't only angry though - I was quite surprised, for the girl to suddenly speak up like that.

"Yes? What is it?" I asked, bringing together the best smile I could possibly display.

"Good people go to heaven, right?"

Surprises after surprises were unfolding today, all in the form of the most unusual of questions from this girl.

How was I going to answer her here? Many things happened to dead people, depending on what they believed, or where they were when they died. It also did not matter what that concept known as "good" was - wherever much of it was done or not, things could be very different at the end for the one concerned.

The most lazy and useless individuals could go to heaven, just like the most hardworking of people that tried to fight their way out of the hell on earth could be dragged back down to its deeper counterpart in hell, all because of that cruel thing called "circumstances".

Sparing the raw nature of life from someone and giving them a false, beautified version of it was very unlike me. I found that the sooner people could face the truth, the better it would be for them.

But a child is frail, a child is a being that lives not on truths, but half-truths. They know not of the ideal knowledge, but they know of ideals.

And ideals are dangerous.

Yet why did I answer her like that?

"Indeed... they go to heaven," I said.

Was I afraid to see her angelic smile fade away? She did look up to me with these eyes that were, once again, filled with hope. It had to be it - I couldn't fathom the idea of causing their loss.

They were so captivating.

But tears began to trickle down her cheeks. Like a treacherous wind blowing out a candle, I had done something to extinguish the light within her eyes.

All I could do was wonder about what I had done wrong.

"H-hey... don't cry!" Hakurei exclaimed in panic, rushing to our side.

The girl sobbed. She was struggling not to break out in tears. That was very brave for a child that was probably around five to seven years old.

"At... at least... I'm sure that papa and mama are in a nice place now..."

So that was it. She asked me that question because she feared for the fate of her parents, which by then, I could be sure were dead.

In a very unusual fashion, I felt relieved that I had coated my words to that child with sugar.

I let the child rest in my arms, hugging her from the back as she remained on my lap, trembling in an affecting display of fragility. It was very soothing, perhaps even more for me than her. I strangely felt at peace while holding the child. Yes, my sentiment of being nagged by responsibilities had magically disappeared.

I could have stayed like that for a while, and even then, I could have fallen asleep; it was so serene.

There was one question that prevented me from doing so though.

_How had she managed to survive the incident while her parents had not?_

The _youkai_ of _Gensokyo _knew their habitats like the back of their hand - it was very hard to escape from them, unless one was of an equal physical footing. This child... didn't seem to meet the criteria at all.

My gaze met Hakurei's. Coincidence or intuition, no matter which of the two caused that event, they led me to noticing the glare of hers, different from the one I knew she had.

It was a very serious one.

She came to my ear and whispered:

"Four corpses, a bloody mess. Two of them were humans, the other two were _youkai_. Someone had blasted the _youkai_'s torsos clean off their legs. I found this while I was patrolling the border to check on its cohesion."

"... so the parents were the ones that killed the _youkai_?"

"No. If that's the case, then damn, they'd have done so with a missing head or a ripped body that'd make even a butcher puke. I think that..."

I raised my hand and signaled her to stop. I knew what she was going to follow up with.

My eyes gazed down to the child, still sobbing on my lap. She apparently had not realized the conversation that was happening over her head, but there was nothing that guaranteed me that this was truly the case; as a matter of safety, I opted to erase the border between sound and soundless so that she would never hear the words shared between me and Hakurei.

"... on what grounds are you claiming that this child was the one who killed the _youkai_?"

"There are two points. One, the _youkai_ were blasted by the raw discharge of an aura so powerful even the surrounding trees were razed. They weren't ripped to pieces or dismembered like the humans were, they were just blown apart. Obviously, the work of magic, and as far as I'm concerned, no _youkai _living within the vicinity of that place has as potent spiritual pressure."

Hakurei paused and glanced at the child on the sly.

"Two, the little girl herself. I felt a very powerful surge of _chi _when I began the process of spiritual healing - that spike could've easily been mistaken for yours."

I dismissed this conclusion as a mix of overreactions and an abuse of generalizations from Hakurei at first. It could have very well been the work of a merciful _youkai _that actually had a noble spirit. Besides, what was it that guaranteed that these two humans were in fact the girl's parents?

And the idea that a child of her level could exhibit a potential rivaling my own was a prospect that appeared absurd to the highest degree.

But the child had very well said that they had died, so she must had seen it. And that wasn't the only thing, I was being the victim of something that I had practiced for a very long time - not seeing what I did not want to see.

I didn't see the two bloodied labels that Hakurei was trying to slip to me furtively.

Labels that could only come from factories of the outside world, just like the child had on her kimono.

"So? Still don't believe me? That's quite the little girl we have here... are you sure that you didn't do anything to her to make her like that?"

"No. Why would I do so?"

Hakurei smiled. It was a smile, yes, but it was a sarcastic smile, and I knew exactly why she was giving it to me.

There had been a certain child that I had "empowered", both accidentally and on purpose, because she never had the spiritual potency required to become a shrine maiden.

The purple hair of this woman that sat besides me stood as a testimony to that time.

"At any rate... I'll take care of her. You came here to leave her in my care, right?"

Truth to be told, I had not initially, but when so many details had been uncovered about the child, I had shifted my thoughts to do so rather than taking her to the _Human Village_.

Why? Because the _Human Village _had its own share of shady personalities, people that could turn this child's peaceful time into a warring nightmare if they ever discovered her innate potential.

I would have more control over the situation if the child was given to Hakurei.

_No, this situation will require personal monitoring - a human that possesses powers rivaling mine all while being a mere child... it is alarming._

So I thought.

"We will take care of her together."

Hakurei's eyes turned blank. Her mouth dropped open.

"W-what?!"

"Are you deaf?"

The shrine maiden remained awestruck. It seemed that she had really not expected such an answer from me.

She feigned to cough after a while, her shock display having then gone away.

"My, my... are you feeling well, Yukari?"

"Why are you asking me this? Are you insinuating that I'm becoming senile?"

"Well, not senile, it's just that somehow, I get the feeling that you've changed a bit since the last time I saw you, what was it... like a year ago?"

"Changed me? And where do you see this?"

"Everywhere on you, but mostly that smile that you just gave me. It looked very motherly, quite unlike your _Youkai of Boundaries _feared by all thingamajig~"

_Smile? I smiled?_

I froze my expression and instinctively brought my hands to my lips to feel the shape that they were making.

Doubtlessly, that was a smile.

"Fool, I'm just in high spirits."

"Bah, stop trying to find excuses. Anyway, she really seems to like you a lot... and look, she's even fallen asleep on your lap... awww~"

I looked down to my lap, once again. Truly, the child had fallen into a deep slumber. Tears were still imprinted onto her eyelashes, marking the recent passage of sorrow, but mostly, it was a peaceful visage that I could observe by then.

"Hey, Yukari?"

"What?"

"Don't you think that she looks like a dream that could fade away at any second? I mean... just look at her right now, I'm afraid to close my eyes, because she feels like she'd vanish the moment I would do so. "

The child did look frail, curled up against me. No, Hakurei had it right, she didn't look frail - she _was_ frail; her soul to be precise, worn and broken that it was.

"Hey, Yukari?"

"What?"

_Why was she repeating herself?_

"Let's call her Reimu."

I still remember the movement on Hakurei's lips. They flowed in a way that even water could not match - it was enticing, so enticing.

"Reimu..." I repeated after her.

It was a name worthy of a butterfly, the most beautiful of butterflies. A dream of the soul, of the spirit, ethereal in all beauty. Refusing that name would have been a crime for me.

"... that sounds like a lovely name."


End file.
